text:
Chapter XXI – XXIX
Home / Books / Books in English / Ambassador Morgenthau's Story / Read Online
Ambassador Morgenthau's Story
ENVER AS THE MAN WHO DEMONSTRATED "THE VULNERABILITY OF THE BRITISH FLEET"—OLD-FASHIONED DEFENSES OF THE DARDANELLES
Written by Henry Morgenthau and originally published in 1918
When the situation had reached this exciting stage, Enver asked me to visit the Dardanelles. He still insisted that the fortifications were impregnable and he could not understand, he said, the panic which was then raging in Constantinople. He had visited the Dardanelles himself, had inspected every gun and every emplacement, and he was entirely confident that his soldiers could hold off the Allied fleet indefinitely. He had taken Talaat down, and by doing so he had considerably eased that statesman's fears. It was Enver's conviction that, if I should visit the fortifications, I would be persuaded that the fleets could never get through, and that I would thus be able to give such assurances to the people that the prevailing excitement would subside. I disregarded certain natural doubts as to whether an ambassador should expose himself to the dangers of such a situation—the ships were bombarding nearly every day—and promptly accepted Enver's invitation.
On the morning of the 15th, we left Constantinople on the Yuruk. Enver himself accompanied us as far as Panderma, an Asiatic town on the Sea of Marmora. The party included several other notables: Ibrahim Bey, the Minister of Justice; Husni Pasha, the general who had commanded the army which had deposed Abdul Hamid in the Young Turk revolution; and Senator Cheriff Djafer Pasha, an Arab and a direct descendant of the Prophet. A particularly congenial companion was Fuad Pasha, an old field marshal, who had led an adventurous career; despite his age, he had an immense capacity for enjoyment, was a huge feeder and a capacious drinker, and had as many stories to tell of exile, battle, and hair breadth escapes as Othello. All of these men were much older than Enver, and all of them were descended from far more distinguished ancestors, yet they treated this stripling with the utmost deference.
Enver seemed particularly glad of this opportunity to discuss the situation. Immediately after breakfast, he took me aside, and together we went up to the deck. The day was a beautiful sunny one, and the sky in the Marmora was that deep blue which we find only in this part of the world. What most impressed me was the intense quiet, the almost desolate inactivity of these silent waters. Our ship was almost the only one in sight, and this inland sea, which in ordinary times was one of the world's greatest commercial highways, was now practically a primeval waste. The whole scene was merely a reflection of the great triumph which German diplomacy had accomplished in the Near East. For nearly six months not a Russian merchant ship had passed through the straits. All the commerce of Rumania and Bulgaria, which had normally found its way to Europe across this inland sea, had long since disappeared. The ultimate significance of all this desolation was that Russia was blockaded and completely isolated from her allies. How much that one fact has meant in the history of the world for the last three years! And now England and France were seeking to overcome this disadvantage; to link up their own military resources with those of their great eastern ally, and to restore to the Dardanelles and the Marmora the thousands of ships that meant Russia's existence as a military and economic, and even, as subsequent events have shown, as a political power. We were approaching the scene of one of the great crises of the war.
Would England and her allies succeed in this enterprise? Would their ships at the Dardanelles smash the fortifications, break through, and again make Russia a permanent force in the war? That was the main subject which Enver and I discussed, as for nearly three hours we walked up and down the deck. Enver again referred to the "silly panic" that had seized nearly all classes in the capital. "Even though Bulgaria and Greece both turn against us," he said, "we shall defend Constantinople to the end. We have plenty of guns, plenty of ammunition, and we have these on terra firma, whereas the English and French batteries are floating ones. And the natural advantages of the straits are so great that the warships can make little progress against them. I do not care what other people may think. I have studied this problem more thoroughly than any of them, and I feel that I am right. As long as I am at the head of the War Department, we shall not give up. Indeed, I do not know just what these English and French battleships are driving at. Suppose that they rush the Dardanelles, get into the Marmora and reach Constantinople; what good will that do them? They can bombard and destroy the city, I admit; but they cannot capture it, as they have only a few troops to land. Unless they do bring a large army, they will really be caught in a trap. They can perhaps stay here for two or three weeks until their food and supplies are all exhausted and then they will have to go back—rush the straits again, and again run the risk of annihilation. In the meantime, we would have repaired the forts, brought in troops, and made ourselves ready for them. It seems to me to be a very foolish enterprise."
I have already told how Enver had taken Napoleon as his model, and in this Dardanelles expedition he now apparently saw a Napoleonic opportunity. As we were pacing the deck he stopped a moment, looked at me earnestly, and said:
"I shall go down in history as the man who demonstrated the vulnerability of England and her fleet. I shall show that her navy is not invincible. I was in England a few years before the war and discussed England's position with many of her leading men, such as Asquith, Churchill, Haldane. I told them that their course was wrong. Winston Churchill declared that England could defend herself with her navy alone, and that she needed no large army. I told Churchill that no great empire could last that did not have both an army and a navy. I found that Churchill's opinion was the one that prevailed everywhere in England. There was only one man I met who agreed with me, that was Lord Roberts. Well, Churchill has now sent his fleet down here—perhaps to show me that his navy can do all that he said it could do. Now we'll see."
Enver seemed to regard his naval expedition as a personal challenge from Mr. Churchill to himself—almost like a continuation of their argument in London.
"You, too, should have a large army," said Enver, referring to the United States.
"I do not believe," he went on, "that England is trying to force the Dardanelles because Russia has asked her to. When I was in England I discussed with Churchill the possibility of a general war. He asked me what Turkey would do in such a case, and said that, if we took Germany's side, the British fleet would force the Dardanelles and capture Constantinople. Churchill is not trying to help Russia—he is carrying out the threat made to me at that time."
Enver spoke with the utmost determination and conviction; he said that nearly all the damage inflicted on the outside forts had been repaired, and that the Turks had methods of defense the existence of which the enemy little suspected. He showed great bitterness against the English; he accused them of attempting to bribe Turkish officials and even said that they had instigated attempts upon his own life. On the other hand, he displayed no particular friendliness toward the Germans. Wangenheim's overbearing manners had caused him much irritation, and the Turks, he said, got on none too well with the German officers.
"The Turks and Germans," he added, "care nothing for each other. We are with them because it is our interest to be with them; they are with us because that is their interest. Germany will back Turkey just so long as that helps Germany; Turkey will back Germany just so long as that helps Turkey."
Enver seemed much impressed at the close of our interview with the intimate personal relations which we had established with each other. He apparently believed that he, the great Enver, the Napoleon of the Turkish Revolution, had unbended in discussing his nation's affairs with a mere ambassador.
"You know," he said, "that there is no one in Germany with whom the Emperor talks as intimately as I have talked with you to-day."
We reached Panderma about two o'clock. Here Enver and his auto were put ashore and our party started again, our boat arriving at Gallipoli late in the afternoon. We anchored in the harbour and spent the night on board. All the evening we could hear the guns bombarding the fortifications, but these reminders of war and death did not affect the spirits of my Turkish hosts. The occasion was for them a great lark; they had spent several months in hard, exacting work, and now they behaved like boys suddenly let out for a vacation. They cracked jokes, told stories, sang the queerest kinds of songs, and played childish pranks upon one another. The venerable Fuad, despite his nearly ninety years, developed great qualities as an entertainer, and the fact that his associates made him the butt of most of their horse-play apparently only added to his enjoyment of the occasion. The amusement reached its height when one of his friends surreptitiously poured him a glass of eau-de-cologne. The old gentleman looked at the new drink a moment and then diluted it with water. I was told that the proper way of testing raki, the popular Turkish tipple, is by mixing it with water; if it turns white under this treatment, it is the real thing and may be safely drunk. Apparently water has the same effect upon eau-de-cologne, for the contents of Fuad's glass, after this test, turned white. The old gentleman, therefore, poured the whole thing down his throat without a grimace—much to the hilarious entertainment of his tormentors.
In the morning we started again. We now had fairly arrived in the Dardanelles, and from Gallipoli we had a sail of nearly twenty-five miles to Tchanak Kalé. For the most part this section of the strait is uninteresting and, from a military point of view, it is unimportant. The stream is about two miles wide, both sides are low-lying and marshy, and only a few scrambling villages show any signs of life. I was told that there were a few ancient fortifications, their rusty guns pointing toward the Marmora, the emplacements having been erected there in the early part of the nineteenth century for the purpose of preventing hostile ships entering from the north. These fortifications, however, were so inconspicuous that I could not see them; my hosts informed me that they had no fighting power, and that, indeed, there was nothing in the northern part of the straits, from Point Nagara to the Marmora, that could offer resistance to any modern fleet. The chief interest which I found in this part of the Dardanelles was purely historic and legendary. The ancient town of Lampsacus appeared in the modern Lapsaki, just across from Gallipoli, and Nagara Point is the site of the ancient Abydos, from which village Leander used to swim nightly across the Hellespont to Hero—a feat which was repeated about one hundred years ago by Lord Byron. Here also Xerxes crossed from Asia to Greece on a bridge of boats, embarking on that famous expedition which was to make him master of mankind. The spirit of Xerxes, I thought, as I passed the scene of his exploit, is still quite active in the world! The Germans and Turks had found a less romantic use for this, the narrowest part of the Dardanelles, for here they had stretched a cable and anti-submarine barrage of mines and nets—a device, which, as I shall describe, did not keep the English and French underwater boats out of the Marmora and the Bosphorus. It was not until we rounded this historic point of Nagara that the dull monotony of flat shores gave place to a more diversified landscape. On the European side the cliffs now began to descend precipitously to the water, reminding me of our own Palisades along the Hudson, and I obtained glimpses of the hills and mountain ridges that afterward proved such tragical stumbling blocks to the valiant Allied armies. The configuration of the land south of Nagara, with its many hills and ridges, made it plain why the military engineers had selected this stretch of the Dardanelles as the section best adapted to defense. Our boat was now approaching what was perhaps the most commanding point in the whole strait—the city Tchanak, or, to give it its modern European name, Dardanelles. In normal times this was a thriving port of 16,000 people, its houses built of wood, the headquarters of a considerable trade in wool and other products, and for centuries it had been an important military station. Now, excepting for the soldiers, it was deserted, the large civilian population having been moved into Anatolia. The British fleet, we were told, had bombarded this city; yet this statement seemed hardly probable, for I saw only a single house that had been hit, evidently by a stray shell which had been aimed at the near-by fortifications.
Djevad Pasha, the Turkish Commander-in-Chief at the Dardanelles, met us and escorted our party to headquarters. Djevad was a man of culture and of pleasing and cordial manners; as he spoke excellent German I had no need of an interpreter. I was much impressed by the deference with which the German officers treated him; that he was the Commander-in-Chief in this theatre of war, and that the generals of the Kaiser were his subordinates, was made plainly apparent. As we passed into his office, Djevad stopped in front of a piece of a torpedo, mounted in the middle of the hall, evidently as a souvenir.
"There is the great criminal!" he said, calling my attention to the relic.
About this time the newspapers were hailing the exploit of an English submarine, which had sailed from England to the Dardanelles, passed under the mine field, and torpedoed the Turkish warship Mesudié.
"That's the torpedo that did it!" said Djevad. "You'll see the wreck of the ship when you go down."
The first fortification I visited was that of Anadolu Hamidié (that is, Asiatic Hamidié) located on the water's edge just outside of Tchanak. My first impression was that I was in Germany. The officers were practically all Germans and everywhere Germans were building buttresses with sacks of sand and in other ways strengthening the emplacements. Here German, not Turkish, was the language heard on every side. Colonel Wehrle, who conducted me over these batteries, took the greatest delight in showing them. He had the simple pride of the artist in his work, and told me of the happiness that had come into his days when Germany had at last found herself at war. All his life, he said, he had spent in military practices, and, like most Germans, he had become tired of manœuvres, sham battles, and other forms of mimic hostilities. Yet he was approaching fifty, he had become a colonel, and he was fearful that his career would close without actual military experience—and then the splendid thing had happened and here he was, fighting a real English enemy, firing real guns and shells! There was nothing brutal about Wehrle's manners; he was a "gemütlich" gentleman from Baden, and thoroughly likable; yet he was all aglow with the spirit of "Der Tag." His attitude was simply that of a man who had spent his lifetime learning a trade and who now rejoiced at the chance of exercising it. But he furnished an illuminating light on the German military character and the forces that had really caused the war.
Feeling myself so completely in German country, I asked Colonel Wehrle why there were so few Turks on this side of the strait. "You won't ask me that question this afternoon," he said, smiling, "when you go over to the other side."
The location of Anadolu Hamidié seemed ideal. It stands right at the water's edge, and consists—or it did then—of ten guns, every one completely sweeping the Dardanelles. Walking upon the parapet, I had a clear view of the strait, and Kum Kalé, at the entrance, about fifteen miles away, stood out conspicuously. No warship could enter these waters without immediately coming within complete sight of her gunners. Yet the fortress itself, to an unprofessional eye like my own, was not particularly impressive. The parapet and traverses were merely mounds of earth, and stand to-day practically as they were finished by their French constructors in 1837. There is a general belief that the Germans had completely modernized the Dardanelles defenses, but this was not true at that time. The guns defending Fort Anadolu Hamidié were more than thirty years old, all being the Krupp model of 1885, and the rusted exteriors of some of them gave evidences of their age. Their extreme range was only about nine miles, while the range of the battleships opposing them was about ten miles, and that of the Queen Elizabeth was not far from eleven. The figures which I have given for Anadolu Hamidié apply also to practically all the guns at the other effective fortifications. So far as the advantage of range was concerned, therefore, the Allied fleet had a decided superiority, the Queen Elizabeth alone having them all practically at her mercy. Nor did the fortifications contain very considerable supplies of ammunition. At that time the European and American papers were printing stories that train loads of shells and guns were coming by way of Rumania from Germany to the Dardanelles. From facts which I learned on this trip and subsequently I am convinced that these reports were pure fiction. A small number of "red heads"—that is, non-armour-piercing projectiles useful only for fighting landing parties—had been brought from Adrianople and were reposing in Hamidié at the time of my visit, but these were small in quantity and of no value in fighting ships. I lay this stress upon Hamidié because this was the most important fortification in the Dardanelles. Throughout the whole bombardment it attracted more of the Allied fire than any other position, and it inflicted at least 60 per cent. of all the damage that was done to the attacking ships. It was Anadolu Hamidié which, in the great bombardment of March 18th, sank the Bouvet, the French battleship, and which in the course of the whole attack disabled several other units. All its officers were Germans and eighty-five per cent. of the men on duty came from the crews of the Goeben and the Breslau.
Getting into the automobile, we sped along the military road to Dardanos, passing on the way the wreck of the Mesudié. The Dardanos battery was as completely Turkish as the Hamidié was German. The guns at Dardanos were somewhat more modern than those at Hamidié—they were the Krupp model of 1905. Here also was stationed the only new battery which the Germans had established up to the time of my visit; it consisted of several guns which they had taken from the German and Turkish warships then lying in the Bosphorus. A few days before our inspection the Allied fleet had entered the Bay of Erenkeui and had submitted Dardanos to a terrific bombardment, the evidences of which I saw on every hand. The land for nearly half a mile about seemed to have been completely churned up; it looked like photographs I had seen of the battlefields in France. The strange thing was that, despite all this punishment, the batteries themselves remained intact; not a single gun, my guides told me, had been destroyed.
"After the war is over," said General Mertens, "we are going to establish a big tourist resort here, build a hotel, and sell relics to you Americans. We shall not have to do much excavating to find them—the British fleet is doing that for us now."
This sounded like a passing joke, yet the statement was literally true. Dardanos, where this emplacement is located, was one of the famous cities of the ancient world; in Homeric times it was part of the principality of Priam. Fragments of capitals and columns are still visible. And the shells from the Allied fleet were now ploughing up many relics which had been buried for thousands of years. One of my friends picked up a water jug which had perhaps been used in the days of Troy. The effectiveness of modern gunfire in excavating these evidences of a long lost civilization was striking—though unfortunately the relics did not always come to the surface intact.
The Turkish generals were extremely proud of the fight which this Dardanos battery had made against the British ships. They would lead me to the guns that had done particularly good service and pat them affectionately. For my benefit Djevad called out Lieutenant Hassan, the Turkish officer who had defended this position. He was a little fellow, with jet-black hair, black eyes, extremely modest and almost shrinking in the presence of these great generals. Djevad patted Hassan on both cheeks, while another high Turkish officer stroked his hair; one would have thought that he was a faithful dog who had just performed some meritorious service.
"It is men like you of whom great heroes are made," said General Djevad. He asked Hassan to describe the attack and the way it had been met. The embarrassed lieutenant quietly told his story, though he was moved almost to tears by the appreciation of his exalted chiefs.
"There is a great future for you in the army," said General Djevad, as we parted from this hero.
Poor Hassan's "future" came two days afterward when the Allied fleet made its greatest attack. One of the shells struck his dugout, which caved in, killing the young man. Yet his behaviour on the day I visited his battery showed that he regarded the praise of his general as sufficient compensation for all that he had suffered or all that he might suffer.
I was much puzzled by the fact that the Allied fleet, despite its large expenditures of ammunition, had not been able to hit this Dardanos emplacement. I naturally thought at first that such a failure indicated poor marksmanship, but my German guides said that this was not the case. All this misfire merely illustrated once more the familiar fact that a rapidly manœuvring battleship is under a great disadvantage in shooting at a fixed fortification. But there was another point involved in the Dardanos battery. My hosts called my attention to its location; it was perched on the top of the hill, in full view of the ships, forming itself a part of the skyline. Dardanos was merely five steel turrets, each armed with a gun, approached by a winding trench.
"That," they said, "is the most difficult thing in the world to hit. It is so distinct that it looks easy, but the whole thing is an illusion."
I do not understand completely the optics of the situation; but it seems that the skyline creates a kind of mirage, so that it is practically impossible to hit anything at that point, except by accident. The gunner might get what was apparently a perfect sight, yet his shell would go wild. The record of Dardanos had been little short of marvellous. Up to March 18th, the ships had fired at it about 4,000 shells. One turret had been hit by a splinter, which had also scratched the paint, another had been hit and slightly bent in, and another had been hit near the base and a piece about the size of a man's hand had been knocked out. But not a single gun had been even slightly damaged. Eight men had been killed, including Lieutenant Hassan, and about forty had been wounded. That was the extent of the destruction.
"It was the optical illusion that saved Dardanos," one of the Germans remarked.


Most geothermal units use a closed loop of pipes in the ground or a body of water. They're usually plastic or copper. Refrigerant or water circulates through the pipes, and a heat exchanger transfers heat between the ground or water and your home. With a closed loop system, you can easily install radiant heating in your walls or floors. That way, you can keep your feet warm at home during the chilly winter in Tallahassee.
Open loop systems use well or surface water. After the water circulates through the pipes, it returns to the same well, another water source or a recharge well. These systems are only practical where there's a good supply of clean water. An experienced professional can help you decide which type of geothermal heat pump is best for your home and make sure that you follow all local regulations on groundwater discharge.
If you have a lake or a pond on your property, you can save money by submerging the pipes for an open loop system or a closed loop system there. Since installers won't have to use construction equipment to dig into the ground, you'll also save time and preserve your landscaping.
Central Heating Consultants has more than 60 years of heating and cooling experience. We can help you maintain, repair and install a variety of HVAC equipment, including geothermal HVAC systems. Call us at 850-270-4352 for an estimate and excellent service.


text:
SwarmopediaTopics* g_pTopics = NULL;

SwarmopediaTopics* GetSwarmopediaTopics()
{
	if (!g_pTopics)
	{
		g_pTopics = new SwarmopediaTopics();
	}
	return g_pTopics;
}

SwarmopediaTopics::SwarmopediaTopics()
{
	m_pKeys = NULL;
	LoadTopics();
}

SwarmopediaTopics::~SwarmopediaTopics()
{
	if (m_pKeys)
		m_pKeys->deleteThis();
}

void SwarmopediaTopics::LoadTopics()
{
	if (m_pKeys)
	{
		Msg("Error: Attempted to load SwarmopediaTopics twice\n");
		return;
	}
	m_pKeys = new KeyValues( "TOPICS" );
	if ( !m_pKeys->LoadFromFile( g_pFullFileSystem, "resource/swarmopedia/topics.txt" ) )
	{
		Msg("Error: Couldn't fine any Swarmopedia topics!, keyvalues is empty!\n");
		// if we get here, it means the player has no mapscores.dat file and therefore no scores
		// (but that's fine)
		return;
	}
}

// fills in the target list panel with buttons for each of the entries in the desired list
bool SwarmopediaTopics::SetupList(SwarmopediaPanel *pPanel, const char *szDesiredList)
{
	// look through our KeyValues for the desired list
	KeyValues *pkvList = GetSubkeyForList(szDesiredList);
	if (!pkvList)
	{
		Msg("Swarmopedia error: Couldn't find list %s\n", szDesiredList);
		return false;
	}

	// now go through every LISTENTRY in the subkey we found, adding it to the list panel
	int iPlayerUnlockLevel = 999;	// todo: have this check a convar that measures how far through the jacob campaign the player has got
	while ( pkvList )
	{
		if (Q_stricmp(pkvList->GetName(), "LISTENTRY")==0)
		{
			const char *szEntryName = pkvList->GetString("Name");
			const char *szArticleTarget = pkvList->GetString("ArticleTarget");
			const char *szListTarget = pkvList->GetString("ListTarget");
			int iEntryUnlockLevel = pkvList->GetInt("UnlockLevel");
			int iSectionHeader = pkvList->GetInt("SectionHeader");

			if (iEntryUnlockLevel == 0 || iEntryUnlockLevel < iPlayerUnlockLevel)
			{
				pPanel->AddListEntry(szEntryName, szArticleTarget, szListTarget, iSectionHeader);
			}
		}
		pkvList = pkvList->GetNextKey();
	}
	return true;
}

KeyValues* SwarmopediaTopics::GetSubkeyForList(const char *szListName)
{
	// now go through each mission section, adding it
	KeyValues *pkvList = m_pKeys->GetFirstSubKey();
	while ( pkvList )
	{
		if (Q_stricmp(pkvList->GetName(), "LIST")==0)
		{
			const char *szName = pkvList->GetString("ListName");
			if (!Q_stricmp(szName, szListName))
				return pkvList->GetFirstSubKey();
		}
		pkvList = pkvList->GetNextKey();
	}
	return NULL;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Save the children, stop child labour give education and medical help.
Tufan a 4 year boy was trafficked out of the village 6 years age. We build up network to find this child from different source. At last the boy was found in Delhi some 1600 mile from his home. He was sold to a family. we rescue Tufan . At present he is studying in our school in class 4. There are many children like him. Your kind support will help us to reach out to rescue many children like Tufan.
Your share could be as good as a donation for Children!
Not everyone can afford to take care of their loved ones. Children's life can only be saved by donations made by kind people like you.


text:
Beijing Olympics: Cauldron lit as Winter Games officially get underway; Poulin and Hamelin carry Canada's flag
Note: This story is no longer being updated.
The latest Olympics news from Beijing and around the world on Friday. Web links to longer stories if available:
10 a.m.: As Canada prepares to send 215 athletes to compete — the third-largest contingent the country has ever sent to a Winter Games — and looks to improve on its 29 medal total from Pyeongchang four years ago, we've brought together a special panel to break it all down including Star columnist Dave Feschuk in Beijing, journalists Kerry Gillespie and Joanna Chiu, former world champion and Olympic figure skater Elvis Stojko and veteran sports broadcaster Rod Black, who will host and moderate the discussion.
Join us for this live virtual event on Friday, Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. EST. Submit your questions to the panellists via email to AskNow@thestar.ca. Questions will be addressed during the live event as time permits.
WATCH HERE.
9:30 a.m.: The Olympic flame has now officially arrived at the Beijing Games.
An opening ceremony on a frosty night had a fiery conclusion Friday, when the flame was placed inside a giant snowflake to give China's first Winter Olympics the symbolic opening — followed by the third major fireworks show of the night.
The snowflake was composed of placards used to introduce the athletes from the 91 different nations that will compete in China through Feb. 20. There was no cauldron to light, the traditional ending to most opening ceremonies.
Competition in some events started Wednesday and Saturday is the first full day of events at the games, with the first medals to be awarded.
It took the flame more than three months to finally make its way to the games. It was lit on Oct. 18 in Ancient Olympia, Greece, the official start of its journey to China.
9:15 a.m.: Days after quietly ringing in the Chinese New Year, Beijing is celebrating the Year of the Tiger on the Olympic stage.
The tiger — a symbol of strength and good luck in Chinese folklore — was featured during Friday's Winter Olympic opening ceremony. The placard bearers for all 91 countries in the Parade of Nations each wore a unique tiger-head hat, and a children's choir was outfitted in traditional tiger-head shoes made in the northern Hebei province.
Celebrations for the Lunar New Year were muted across Asia on Monday amid concerns over the coronavirus, but hopes are high that the Year of the Tiger might return some sense of normalcy.
In Chinese mythology, the tiger is considered the king of all animals, and tiger-head hats and shoes are commonly worn by children to ward off demons and bring good luck. The hats created for the placard bearers Friday were designed in blue and white to represent snow and ice, while the shoes worn by the choir were a bright combo of orange, yellow and green.
9 a.m.: Chinese President Xi Jinping declares the Beijing Olympics open, 1st time a city hosts both Winter and Summer Games. Chinese athletes Zhao Jiawen and Dinigeer Yilamujiang deliver the final Olympic flame at the Beijing Games.
8:20 a.m.: Canadian women's hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin and short-track speedskater Charles Hamelin waved the Maple Leaf together as they entered the National Stadium on a clear but cold evening.
Bundled up in thick winter gear, they proudly held the flagpole as they led in the 100-strong contingent of Canadian athletes, team officials and support staff.
Sandwiched between Ghana and San Marino, Canada was 27th out of 91 countries to enter the stadium.
Canada didn't send any official representatives to the Games as part of a diplomatic boycott over China's record of human rights abuses. Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith waved to the athletes from the stands.
The ceremony had a more celebratory feel than the rather sombre opening ceremony at the Tokyo Games last summer, the first Olympics to be held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was the first ceremony since the COC switched to Lululemon as its outfitter after a 16-year run with Hudson's Bay.
Canada won 29 medals at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the most by a Canadian team at a single Winter Olympics.
8:15 a.m.: At least two of the women who would have been flagbearers at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics were not in the parade of athletes on Friday night because of virus-related issues.
U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor had to give up her spot to speedskater Brittany Bowe. Meyers Taylor remains in isolation after a positive test.
And Friday, U.S. Virgin Islands skeleton athlete Katie Tannenbaum revealed that she, too, has tested positive for COVID-19. The Virgin Islands flag was being carried into the stadium by a volunteer.
Tannenbaum is the only athlete representing the Virgin Islands in Beijing at these games. Her coach, Alex Auer, and the nation's Chef de Mission, Ansen Siglar, were walking to represent the team.
8:15 a.m.: At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, no detail is overlooked.
Every nation is being led into the stadium by someone carrying a glowing snowflake-shaped placard bearing that country's name. And each of the snowflakes, when put back together, would form a larger snowflake.
The placard bearers' costumes has an ice-and-snow pattern, and their hats have a tiger motif — because this year is the year of the tiger in China.
7:32 a.m.: One hundred members of Team Canada will be marching into the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, the team said.
7:15 a.m.: In China, Friday was "Lichun" — which translates to the beginning of spring.
And in this case, the start of the Winter Olympics.
Women's hockey faces tough test, Mikael Kingsbury returns, and plenty of speedskating for Team Canada.
"Beginning of Spring" is the first of the 24 solar terms of the year, and that number — 24 — carried significance in the early moments of the opening ceremony of these Beijing Games. Organizers say it reflects "the Chinese people's understanding of time," also noting that these were the 24th Winter Olympics.
The celebration of the lunar terms was punctuated by the first of what will be multiple pyrotechnic displays at the Bird's Nest — including using fireworks to spell out the word "Spring."
It's also a Chinese belief that extreme cold breeds new life. Temperatures were expected to fall as the ceremony goes along; perhaps not extreme cold, but certainly a chilly start to the Beijing Games.
6:30 a.m.: Of the 492 members of the Canadian delegation at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, none have tested positive for COVID-19, Team Canada announced Friday morning ahead of the opening ceremony.
5:45 a.m.: The country where the coronavirus outbreak emerged two years ago launched a locked-down Winter Olympics on Friday, proudly projecting its might on the most global of stages even as some Western governments mounted a diplomatic boycott over the way China treats millions of its own people.
Beijing becomes the first city to host both winter and summer Olympic Games. And while some are staying away from the second pandemic Olympics in six months, many other world leaders planned to attend the opening ceremony. Most notable: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met privately with China's Xi Jinping earlier in the day as a dangerous standoff unfolds at Russia's border with Ukraine.
The Olympics — and the opening ceremony — are always an exercise in performance for the host nation, a chance to showcase its culture, define its place in the world, flaunt its best side. That's something China in particular has been consumed with for decades. But at this year's Beijing Games, the gulf between performance and reality will be particularly jarring.
5:22 a.m.: In luge, Reid Watts of Whistler, B.C., finished 18th in both the fifth and sixth men's singles training runs. The first two competitive runs are on Saturday.
5:21 a.m.: Friday's events were a few of the practices and preliminary competitions leading up to the opening ceremony to officially kick off the Beijing Games. The first medals are handed out Saturday, including in men's moguls, where defending champion Mikaël Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Que., is a favourite to repeat.
Canada's men's hockey team had its practice cancelled Friday. Hockey Canada said the late-afternoon session would have made it difficult for players to attend the opening ceremony. The team is expected to hold its first practice Saturday as it gears up for its game Thursday against Germany.
5:19 a.m.: Six weeks after the NHL pulled out of the Olympics and three weeks since USA Hockey finalized the roster, the full team was finally on the ice together Friday for the first time.
Well, almost the full team.
Star college defenceman Jake Sanderson remained in Los Angeles in coronavirus protocol, while veterans Steven Kampfer and Andy Miele were isolating in the athletes village after testing positive upon arrival.
All 12 teams in the tournament are trying to get up to speed quickly, and the U.S. has the extra hiccup of missing three players, even though there's hope each can produce two negative tests at least 24 hours apart and be ready by the first game.
"We're optimistic," coach David Quinn said after the Americans' first practice in Beijing. "It's a day-to-day situation with these guys. We expect them to be back. It's the world we live in. Every team's going through it, and we're no different."
Each team is dealing with a different degree of difficulty pulling two dozen or more players together in a short period of time. Germany, China and others have tight-knit groups strengthened by established on- and off-ice chemistry, the opposite of Canada and the U.S. blending rosters with players ranging in age from 19 to 37.
5:18 a.m.: In team figure skating, Canada sat sixth after the opening three events and faced an early elimination from a competition it won at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
A squad already short on depth was missing Keegan Messing, who remains in Canada awaiting two more negative COVID-19 tests.
Roman Sadovsky, a 22-year-old from Toronto, stepped in for Messing in the men's short program but had a shaky skate and finished eighth out of nine skaters.
Sadovsky underrotated and two-footed the landing on his quadruple Salchow to finish with 71.06 points.
"Kind of disappointing honestly," Sadovsky said. "Only because those are mistakes that I don't usually make. The quad Salchow is a comfort jump for me. It was very successful this season. There was just a slight mishap on the takeoff that didn't allow me to pull in."
5:15 a.m.: Canada's defence of its Olympic mixed doubles curling gold medal is looking a lot more promising.
After splitting its opening two mixed doubles matches Thursday, Canada's tandem of John Morris and Rachel Homan picked up a pair of wins Friday to move into a tie with Britain for second place in the round-robin standings at 3-1.
Morris, from Canmore, Alta., and Ottawa's Homan opened with a 7-5 win over Switzerland. The Canadians scored three points in the first end, and had an answer any time the Swiss duo of Jenny Perret and Martin Rios looked to close the gap.
The Canadians followed with an 8-6 win over host China. Homan and Morris had a 4-1 lead after a steal of two in the third end, and held a commanding 8-4 lead entering the eighth and final end.
12:45 a.m. There was one firm rule in the Sharpe household where Olympic halfpipe skier Cassie and Olympic snowboarder Darcy grew up: Be in the truck by 7 a.m. or you don't go to the mountain.
"They all only missed out one time because they were so bummed they didn't make it," Don Sharpe says of children Cassie, Darcy and Doug.
When it came to sporting excellence in this family, the Sharpe kids drove themselves.
There are many families, coaches and sport programs that work hard to foster and develop elite athletes, sometimes controversially so. But Don and Chantal Sharpe raised two Olympians not by design so much as happenstance.
The kids grew up, quite literally, on a mountain: Vancouver Island's Mount Washington. That's where Don worked as director of business operations for the mountain resort. And Chantal's job as a flight attendant for WestJet turned out to be very handy once the kids started travelling to competitions because, as she says, "we're not made of money."
It all comes down to "many, many blessings," she says. "For them to have the athleticism and then develop this love and passion, it just kind of grew from there."
All the way to the Olympics.
Read the rest from the Star's Kerry Gillespie.
12:40 a.m. The second men's downhill ski training session is underway at the Beijing Olympics after a delay due to strong winds.
Overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland was first to set off down the slope an hour after originally scheduled Friday.
The world's best skiers only got the chance to see the Rock course up close for the first time on Thursday. There is a third training session scheduled Saturday before the men's downhill opens the Alpine competition the following day.
11:30 p.m. Canada's Rachel Homan and John Morris beat Switzerland's Martin Rios and Jenny Perret 7-5 in mixed doubles curling. They had an earlier 7-6 victory against Norway and will play China later today.
11:20 p.m. Organizers say nine more athletes and officials tested positive for COVID-19 in cases confirmed on Thursday, raising the total to 111 since the Beijing Olympic period started on Jan. 23.
Seven cases were detected at the Beijing airport, making it 77 out of 5,255 athletes and officials who arrived through Thursday. The other two cases came from daily PCR testing that all people inside the Olympic bubbles must undergo.
Organizers say 12 more positive cases were detected among "stakeholders" — mostly workers at the Games including media. Seven of those were at the airport and five in daily tests.
The overall total of positive cases is 308 through Thursday. Almost 12,000 people have arrived in Beijing from outside China.
11 p.m. Organizers have delayed the start of the second men's downhill training session at the Beijing Olympics due to strong winds.
The session had been scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Beijing time, but organizers will only make a decision then whether it can start at the new scheduled time of noon.
Weather is yet another source of stress for competitive skiers who can do nothing to control changing conditions on the slopes.
10:30 p.m. Hours after learning he would be skating, Roman Sadovsky put Canada in eighth place in the figure skating team event at the Beijing Olympics.
The 22-year-old from Toronto had a shaky skate the morning after the Canadian team informed him he'd be stepping in for Canadian champion Keegan Messing, who remains in Canada awaiting a negative COVID-19 test.
"I was told to just stay ready, be prepared," Sadovsky said on the late notice. "All season I've been working towards the Olympic Games. I know the Games have a team event. It's a little bit of an endurance kind of weekend after all the programs. I came here prepared to do anything, really."
With no room for error in the short program, Sadovsky underrotated and two-footed the landing on his quadruple Salchow — a jump he said he usually lands comfortably — to finish with 71.06 points.
3:40 p.m. We passed a man in the hazmat suit as he held a fishing net on the side of the airport road, and that was the only inexplicable note. The Beijing Olympics are the Genocide Games, the second pandemic Games, the first second Games of a Chinese century, and the most locked-down Olympics in history. It makes sense, all of it. All of it can be explained.
There has never been an Olympics this captive. Omicron is the sternest test for China's zero-COVID philosophy, and after two years of reporting almost no cases neighbourhoods in Beijing have again been locked down in the brutalist Chinese fashion, with residents forbidden to leave their houses. Beijing's Capital Airport, one of the busiest in the world, is a ghost airport handling half-empty flights of Games-associated travellers: International Olympic Committee in-house broadcast crews, the smaller-than-usual army of NBC employees, officials and judges, the athletes from countries that couldn't afford to charter their own plane, and the motley general media, all of whom take pictures of the airport staff in hazmat suits. No other planes seem to be landing but those.
The daily COVID tests are enthusiastic — the daily throat swab makes just about everybody gag. Journalists and athletes alike are using VPNs on their burner phones or laptops to evade the Great Firewall, and hacking by Chinese security services is assumed. When Canadian government officials get briefed on visits to China, they are told, among other things, that if you log into any account on a Chinese wireless system here, the Chinese government will have access to that account forever.
The Star's Bruce Arthur has the story.
2:15 p.m. What's it like to be a Canadian athlete in Beijing's Olympic Village during a pandemic?
Ahead of the Games starting Friday, Team Canada Biathlete Adam Runnalls is capturing his unique experience over TikTok — sharing an inside look on everything from PCR testing to smart beds — and gaining tens of thousands of views.
When he arrived in Beijing on Sunday, Runnalls stepped foot inside a campus-style residence in the village of Zhangjiakou, located in the northern part of China.
Read the rest from the Star's Libaan Osman.
2:06 p.m. Long before some of the world's best athletes got set to march into the Bird's Nest Stadium on Friday to witness the lighting of the torch, there were calls to pre-emptively extinguish these Winter Olympics.
There were demands to boycott the Games so China's ever-emboldened authoritarian regime wouldn't benefit from them — an outcome that, if the history lesson of the West's boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games taught us anything, punishes athletes and changes almost nothing. And then there was the Green Party's big idea, raised little more than a year ago, to move the Games to Vancouver — a hypothetical fantasy that drew a chuckle from a man named John Furlong, who once organized an Olympics in that city, and who made it clear that such an endeavour would require years of careful lead time, not harried months.
So here we are, on the eve of a Chinese Winter Games, and the question beyond the field of play is a doozy: knowing what we know about China's blatant disregard for human rights, not to mention the surveillence-state tendencies that have led multiple countries to recommend their athletes and officials arrive here with burner phones and laptops, it possible to watch this televised spectacle of snow and ice with a clear conscience?
Read the latest from The Star's Dave Feschuk.
1:12 p.m. It's quite a thing to see a 68-year-old Bavarian lawyer perform as a contortionist, but perhaps that's just part of the magic of the Olympics. Thomas Bach is the president of the International Olympic Committee, which is a difficult job. It's a big world. Bringing it together means complications.
So the night before the opening of the Beijing Olympics, Bach did what he so often does when threatened: he tried to retreat into the comforting, imaginary safety of neutrality. The Olympics must exist above politics, he said, and instead float in the soft gauzy fog of perfect human equilibrium. He said it in Beijing, in China, in 2022.
"With this vision, we are all and we must be all equal, irrespective of social background, gender, race, sexual orientation or political belief," said Bach, in his Games-opening news conference. "In the Games, in the Olympic Village in particular, there is no discrimination … we can only achieve and we can only accomplish this mission to unite everybody in this peaceful competition if the Olympic Games stand above and beyond all the political disputes. This is also only possible if the Olympic Games and the IOC are politically neutral, and do not become a tool to achieve political goals."
Check out the full story from the Star's Bruce Arthur.
'); is_agreed = false; } } else { is_agreed = true; } if (isvalidName == true && isvalidEmail == true && is_agreed == true) { jQuery(".AjaxLoader").show(); jQuery('#mysuccess_msg').html(''); jQuery('#mysuccess_msg').hide(); jQuery('#myerror_msg').html(''); jQuery('#myerror_msg').hide(); var name = ""; if (jQuery('#yourname').length > 0) { name = jQuery("#yourname").val(); } var nonce = '6d7b348442'; var url = 'https://thesingaporepost.com/wp-content/plugins/email-subscribe/'; var email = jQuery("#youremail").val(); var str = "action=store_email&email=" + email + '&name=' + name + '&is_agreed=' + is_agreed + '&sec_string=' + nonce; jQuery.ajax({ type: "POST", url: 'https://thesingaporepost.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php', data: str, async: true, success: function (msg) { if (msg != '') { var result = msg.split("|"); if (result[0] == 'success') { jQuery(".AjaxLoader").hide(); jQuery('#mysuccess_msg').html(result[1]); jQuery('#mysuccess_msg').show(); setTimeout(function () { jQuery.fancybox_ns.close(); }, 2000); } else { jQuery(".AjaxLoader").hide(); jQuery('#myerror_msg').html(result[1]); jQuery('#myerror_msg').show(); } } } }); } } var interval_63d697f6cde2a = setInterval(function() { if(document.readyState === 'complete') { clearInterval(interval_63d697f6cde2a); /* if ( jQuery.browser.msie && jQuery.browser.version >= 9 ) { jQuery.support.noCloneEvent = true }*/ var htmlpopup = jQuery("#formFormEmail").html(); jQuery("#formFormEmail").remove(); jQuery('body').on('click', '.shownewsletterbox', function () { jQuery.fancybox_ns({ 'overlayColor': '#000000', 'hideOnOverlayClick': false, 'padding': 10, 'autoScale': true, 'showCloseButton': true, 'content': htmlpopup, 'transitionIn': 'fade', 'transitionOut': 'elastic', 'width': 560, 'height': 360 }); }); jQuery(document).ready(function () { if (readCookie('newsLatterPopup') == null) { setTimeout(function(){ jQuery.fancybox_ns({ 'overlayColor': '#000000', 'hideOnOverlayClick': false, 'padding': 10, 'autoScale': true, 'showCloseButton': true, 'content': htmlpopup, 'transitionIn': 'fade', 'transitionOut': 'elastic', 'width': 560, 'height': 360 }); createCookie('newsLatterPopup', 'donotshow', 1); },1500); } }); } }, 100);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Thomas Dow Jones
Thomas Dow Jones (December 12, 1811—February 27, 1881) was a famous sculptor from New York. At the age of 26, he moved to Licking County with his family. [1] Jones is said to be the only person to ever sculpt Abraham Lincoln in a live-setting. [2] One works of art attributed to Jones, but questioned by some, is the famous "Firebug" face on the former First National Bank building in Newark, Ohio. [3] The building is now an office building on the southwest corner of the Courthouse Square at Third Street and Park Place. [4]
↑ Charles A. Paterson, "Monument set to be rededicated," Newark Advocate (Newark, OH), Feb. 12, 2009.
↑ Minnie Hite Moody, "Sculptor identity doubted," Newark Advocate (Newark, OH), Oct. 26, 1972.
↑ Bob Wunderlin, "Firebug scowls at folks," Newark Advocate (Newark, OH), Oct. 12, 1972.
Retrieved from "http://wiki.lickingcountylibrary.info/index.php?title=Thomas_Dow_Jones&oldid=1246"


text:
Das Wohnhaus Düsseldorfer Straße 47 steht im Stadtteil Rheydt in Mönchengladbach (Nordrhein-Westfalen).

Das Haus wurde 1897 erbaut. Es ist unter Nr. D 010 am 3. November 1993 in die Denkmalliste der Stadt Mönchengladbach eingetragen worden.

Architektur

Das Wohnhaus aus dem Jahre 1897 liegt im mittleren Bereich der Düsseldorfer Straße. Der zweieinhalbgeschossige Putzbau mit Gliederungselementen ist in Buntsandstein erbaut und besitzt eine Fassadengestaltung unter Verwendung von Giebel, Türmchen und Erker. Im Turmaufsatz befinden sich zwei gekoppelte Rundbogenfenster, im Giebelfeld ein kreisförmiges Ochsenauge. Das steil ausgebildete Satteldach durchbrechen zwei versetzt angeordnete Gauben, die Brandmauer des Hauses ist rechts als Treppengiebel hochgeführt.

Siehe auch
 Liste der Baudenkmäler in Mönchengladbach

Literatur

Quellen

Einzelnachweise

Wohngebäude in Mönchengladbach
Baudenkmal in Mönchengladbach
Erbaut in den 1890er Jahren

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm
Nick R. Leslie
Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering
In this issue, Chen et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201604025) show that Importin-11 traffics the tumor suppressor PTEN into the nucleus and in so doing protects it from cytoplasmic proteins that cause PTEN degradation. This work helps explain the nuclear accumulation of PTEN observed in many healthy tissues and, because Ipo11 mutant mice develop lung tumors, also implicates Importin-11 as a novel tumor suppressor.
https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201612014
Downoad pdf
© 2017 Leslie This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms/). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 International license, as described at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
Final published version, 570 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-SA
Dive into the research topics of 'Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Tumor Suppressor Protein Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 100%
Degradation Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 50%
Mouse Mutant Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 50%
Leslie, N. R. (2017). Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm. Journal of Cell Biology, 216(3), 539-541. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201612014
Leslie, Nick R. / Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm. In: Journal of Cell Biology. 2017 ; Vol. 216, No. 3. pp. 539-541.
@article{f504b7e647424680a8629d5eaf72044a,
title = "Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm",
abstract = "In this issue, Chen et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201604025) show that Importin-11 traffics the tumor suppressor PTEN into the nucleus and in so doing protects it from cytoplasmic proteins that cause PTEN degradation. This work helps explain the nuclear accumulation of PTEN observed in many healthy tissues and, because Ipo11 mutant mice develop lung tumors, also implicates Importin-11 as a novel tumor suppressor.",
author = "Leslie, {Nick R.}",
doi = "10.1083/jcb.201612014",
journal = "Journal of Cell Biology",
publisher = "Rockefeller University Press",
Leslie, NR 2017, 'Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm', Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 216, no. 3, pp. 539-541. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201612014
Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm. / Leslie, Nick R.
In: Journal of Cell Biology, Vol. 216, No. 3, 03.2017, p. 539-541.
T1 - Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm
AU - Leslie, Nick R.
N2 - In this issue, Chen et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201604025) show that Importin-11 traffics the tumor suppressor PTEN into the nucleus and in so doing protects it from cytoplasmic proteins that cause PTEN degradation. This work helps explain the nuclear accumulation of PTEN observed in many healthy tissues and, because Ipo11 mutant mice develop lung tumors, also implicates Importin-11 as a novel tumor suppressor.
AB - In this issue, Chen et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201604025) show that Importin-11 traffics the tumor suppressor PTEN into the nucleus and in so doing protects it from cytoplasmic proteins that cause PTEN degradation. This work helps explain the nuclear accumulation of PTEN observed in many healthy tissues and, because Ipo11 mutant mice develop lung tumors, also implicates Importin-11 as a novel tumor suppressor.
U2 - 10.1083/jcb.201612014
DO - 10.1083/jcb.201612014
JO - Journal of Cell Biology
JF - Journal of Cell Biology
Leslie NR. Importin-11 keeps PTEN safe from harm. Journal of Cell Biology. 2017 Mar;216(3):539-541. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201612014


text:
// common Windows parts
#include "winvideo.hpp"

// and another headers
#include <cassert>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <dxsdkver.h>
#if _DXSDK_PRODUCT_MAJOR < 9
#error DXSDK Version 9 and above required.
#endif
#include <d2d1.h>
#include <d2d1helper.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "d2d1.lib")

ID2D1Factory *m_pD2DFactory;
ID2D1HwndRenderTarget *m_pRenderTarget;
ID2D1Bitmap *m_pBitmap;
D2D1_SIZE_U bitmapSize;

HANDLE g_hVSync;

#include <DXErr.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "DxErr.lib")

//! Create a dialog box and tell the user what went wrong
bool DisplayError(LPSTR lpstrErr, HRESULT hres) {
    if (hres != S_OK) {
        static bool InError = false;
        int retval = 0;
        if (!InError) {
            InError = true;
            const char *message = hres ? DXGetErrorString(hres) : 0;
            retval =
                MessageBoxA(g_hAppWnd, lpstrErr, hres ? message : "Error!", MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR);
            InError = false;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

void DrawBitmap() {
    HRESULT hr = S_OK;
    if (m_pRenderTarget) {
        m_pRenderTarget->BeginDraw();
        if (m_pBitmap)
            hr = m_pBitmap->CopyFromMemory(nullptr, (BYTE *)g_pImg, 4 * g_sizex);
        DisplayError("DrawBitmap error", hr);
        m_pRenderTarget->DrawBitmap(m_pBitmap);
        m_pRenderTarget->EndDraw();
    }
    return;
}

inline void mouse(int k, LPARAM lParam) {
    int x = (int)LOWORD(lParam);
    int y = (int)HIWORD(lParam);
    RECT rc;
    GetClientRect(g_hAppWnd, &rc);
    g_video->on_mouse(x * g_sizex / (rc.right - rc.left), y * g_sizey / (rc.bottom - rc.top), k);
}

//! Win event processing function
LRESULT CALLBACK InternalWndProc(HWND hwnd, UINT iMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) {
    switch (iMsg) {
        case WM_MOVE:
            // Check to make sure our window exists before we tell it to repaint.
            // This will fail the first time (while the window is being created).
            if (hwnd) {
                InvalidateRect(hwnd, nullptr, FALSE);
                UpdateWindow(hwnd);
            }
            return 0L;

        case WM_SIZE:
        case WM_PAINT:
            if (g_video->running && g_video->updating) {
                DrawBitmap();
                Sleep(0);
            }
            break;
        // Process all mouse and keyboard events
        case WM_LBUTTONDOWN: mouse(1, lParam); break;
        case WM_LBUTTONUP: mouse(-1, lParam); break;
        case WM_RBUTTONDOWN: mouse(2, lParam); break;
        case WM_RBUTTONUP: mouse(-2, lParam); break;
        case WM_MBUTTONDOWN: mouse(3, lParam); break;
        case WM_MBUTTONUP: mouse(-3, lParam); break;
        case WM_CHAR: g_video->on_key((int)wParam); break;

        // some useless stuff
        case WM_ERASEBKGND: return 1; // keeps erase-background events from happening, reduces chop
        case WM_DISPLAYCHANGE: return 0;

        // Now, shut down the window...
        case WM_DESTROY: PostQuitMessage(0); return 0;
    }
    // call user defined proc, if exists
    return g_pUserProc ? g_pUserProc(hwnd, iMsg, wParam, lParam)
                       : DefWindowProc(hwnd, iMsg, wParam, lParam);
}

bool video::init_window(int sizex, int sizey) {
    assert(win_hInstance != 0);
    g_sizex = sizex;
    g_sizey = sizey;
    if (!WinInit(win_hInstance, win_iCmdShow, gWndClass, title, false)) {
        DisplayError("Unable to initialize the program's window.");
        return false;
    }
    ShowWindow(g_hAppWnd, SW_SHOW);
    g_pImg = new unsigned int[sizex * sizey];

    HRESULT hr = S_OK;

    hr = D2D1CreateFactory(D2D1_FACTORY_TYPE_SINGLE_THREADED, &m_pD2DFactory);
    // Create a Direct2D render target.
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr) && !m_pRenderTarget) {
        RECT rc;
        GetClientRect(g_hAppWnd, &rc);

        bitmapSize = D2D1::SizeU(rc.right - rc.left, rc.bottom - rc.top);

        hr = m_pD2DFactory->CreateHwndRenderTarget(
            D2D1::RenderTargetProperties(),
            D2D1::HwndRenderTargetProperties(g_hAppWnd, bitmapSize),
            &m_pRenderTarget);
        if (SUCCEEDED(hr) && !m_pBitmap) {
            D2D1_PIXEL_FORMAT pixelFormat =
                D2D1::PixelFormat(DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8A8_UNORM, D2D1_ALPHA_MODE_IGNORE);
            D2D1_BITMAP_PROPERTIES bitmapProperties;
            bitmapProperties.pixelFormat = pixelFormat;
            m_pRenderTarget->GetDpi(&bitmapProperties.dpiX, &bitmapProperties.dpiY);
            m_pRenderTarget->CreateBitmap(bitmapSize, bitmapProperties, &m_pBitmap);
            m_pRenderTarget->DrawBitmap(m_pBitmap);
        }
    }

    running = true;
    return true;
}

void video::terminate() {
    if (m_pBitmap)
        m_pBitmap->Release();
    if (m_pRenderTarget)
        m_pRenderTarget->Release();
    if (m_pD2DFactory)
        m_pD2DFactory->Release();
    g_video = nullptr;
    running = false;

    delete[] g_pImg;
    g_pImg = nullptr;
}

//////////// drawing area constructor & destructor /////////////

drawing_area::drawing_area(int x, int y, int sizex, int sizey)
        : base_index(y * g_sizex + x),
          max_index(g_sizex * g_sizey),
          index_stride(g_sizex),
          pixel_depth(24),
          ptr32(g_pImg),
          start_x(x),
          start_y(y),
          size_x(sizex),
          size_y(sizey) {
    assert(x < g_sizex);
    assert(y < g_sizey);
    assert(x + sizex <= g_sizex);
    assert(y + sizey <= g_sizey);

    index = base_index; // current index
}

void drawing_area::update() {
    if (g_video->updating) {
        RECT r;
        r.left = start_x;
        r.right = start_x + size_x;
        r.top = start_y;
        r.bottom = start_y + size_y;
        InvalidateRect(g_hAppWnd, &r, false);
    }
}


text:
Home Featured Articles What's it like to be a Video Games Tester?
What's it like to be a Video Games Tester?
Carl HoughtonApr 25, 2018Featured Articles, Retro Gaming News 1
I never thought I'd tell this story in full but I've had a little niggling itch recently that just kept telling me to do it. It's something that changed my life forever when it took place, and all for the better too. 15 years ago, I was a professional video games tester, for a short time. 6 weeks to be precise. I sold it to myself as my own personal dream job. I've played video games all of my life, who the hell wouldn't want to be paid for it?? And in a full-time role no less! I eventually left the company under very bad circumstances, which I'll get to later, so I won't be naming names of companies, staff, games, or systems I played on. I'll give as much info as is possible though so you're not completely lost. Also, images I use are not of the workplace where I was based, they're simply used to give an idea of what the working environment was like for me.
I have no idea where I found the job, or how I applied for it. I don't even remember the interview process though I imagine it was simply a one to one, get to know you and find out about my game playing history kinda thing. Needless to say, when I got the call / e-mail back to say I had got the job, I was ecstatic. Anyone who knows me would tell you that at that particular time in my life, this was the perfect job for me. It rolled up everything I was into in one neat little package. I was to work a shift pattern of 4 days on, 4 days off, I think it was an 8 – 6 shift, with a hours lunch in the middle. Minimum wage of course, but this was my first full-time job, at the age of 20, and I didn't care. There were 4 of us starting on the same day, so I wasn't heading in to this on my own. I went in for my first day, and was introduced to my supervisor. For the purpose of this article, let's call him Walt. Walt was an awesome guy, very friendly, helpful, and for those first couple of weeks he seemed to always be available to us should we need the assistance. He helped me out a lot in understanding the processes expected of me in my testing, as it wasn't always made clear.
Exaggerated, but not far from the truth
My job was within the 'Localisation' department. Essentially, I would be expected to play foreign language versions of games in an attempt to find out if the bugs and glitches found in the English version had transferred over to the German, Spanish, French, etc. It would be a bit annoying having to deal with languages I didn't understand for the most part but that was the role and I was ready to do it. We were assigned our own systems, so if anything was ever to happen with them, we knew who was responsible for the problem, or at least who should have known where their own systems were. It was nice to have that bit of individuality in the office but the items were not to leave the office under any circumstances.
I sat down at my desk for my first shift, eager to get stuck into some top unreleased game and was handed my handheld system. So I'd be playing on the small screen, should be interesting. I was then handed the copy of the game I was testing, so I placed it inside the handheld and booted it up. I couldn't tell for sure from the title screen, but it looked to be some sort of travel guide. I asked Walt, "Are we testing a travel guide?" He looked a bit sheepish, "Yeah man, this is your first assignment. I know it's not what you would have expected on your first day, but welcome to games testing." I heaved a sigh, but booted it up anyway. I was 'playing' it in German, and was learning all about the love capital of the world, Paris. Or at least I would be if it wasn't all Germanic. The audio was also in German, so I had to take the guides word for it that it knew what it was talking about.
So my job was to break the game. See if anything was wrong with it. If I did happen to find a glitch or bug, I was to document everything about it. How I found it, the circumstances within the title that led to it being found, how severe it was, what category of bug it was, there were all kinds of things to record down. 5 days I spent on this travel guide. FIVE DAYS. Me and the other 3 guys were almost crying by the end of that week, it was painful. I also very quickly found I was experiencing side effects from sitting in front of a handheld console for 9 hours each day. On finishing my shifts, I was going home with slightly warped version, like I felt a little drunk. Focusing your eyes on something constantly 10 – 15 inches away from you was not a great idea. It finally hit home that all of these health warnings you'd find in the back of game manuals weren't talking rubbish after all. TAKE A BREAK!!!
Not too dissimilar to how it was laid out where I worked, but we had CRT TVs at the time
The travel guide was over. Thank the heavens. I was sticking with my handheld for my next assignment, which was a basketball title. I'm not the biggest fan of basketball, but I'd played the likes of Total NBA '96 for PS1 and NBA Live '95 for the SNES. Both good games, but never hooked me. I saw basketball as a game that was so back and forth end to end, both teams playing catch-up all the way through that I always wondered why they didn't just play 5 minutes instead, for it always seemed to be the last few minutes of the matches was were it all went off. Anywho, basketball it was then, and while I didn't have to suffer for 5 days with this, it was still very repetitive. A rap / R & B soundtrack played on a loop with what felt like the same 15 – 20 songs over, and over, and over again. I hate those genres of music as it is, so my ears weren't happy. The game was fun, but the AI was very manipulative. Despite playing it as much as I did and getting a lot better, the AI just always seemed to behave as if my buttons were telegraphed to it micro-seconds before it reacted. I wasn't having fun. My fingers were on the verge of blistering as well. I wasn't used to this type of sports game, and neither were my hands. No bugs with this one.
I moved on to a fighting game series, one of the more famous ones out there. This was also to be played on a console system on the TV so I could finally give my eyes a rest! I'm not a fighting game fan, they always seem so convoluted with their excessive combos, and when I hear things like 'juggling', 'wave-dashing', 'focus attacks', I just don't get it. Give me a beat-em-up like Streets of Rage anyway, just get stuck straight into kicking ass. None of these 10 button combos to then miss an attack because it took so long to pull off.
So I was stuck with this fighting game, but I enjoyed it. Well, I enjoyed the adventure mode that it had. It was lengthy, with a fun story, and an immense cast of characters who I was fairly familiar with from exposure to the series over the years. I didn't improve with the combos whilst playing it, so I just button bashed and got through it that way. Again, no bugs and glitches after a few days testing this one, but for the first time since starting my job, I was enjoying myself! Then the travel guide came back. We had nothing else in the immediate pipe-line to test so were expected to go back to this tripe and suffer more anguish. This was one of the more frustrating reality slaps with this job, that you don't see coming. People hear 'games tester' and assume you just walk into work, pick a game to play, kick up your feet and enjoy your shift. Hell no, it's nothing like this at all. You're not given a choice in what you're playing, you're given whatever is in at that given moment. It was a hard pill to swallow but swallow I did.
After languishing in Parisian hell for another day and a half, I was given a football game to test. FINALLY, something I could relate to! Not my favourite series of football games mind you, but still, rather this than hear about French cafes in a German language for another 9 hours. Sadly, it was on the handheld this time, so I'd have to deal with optic issues again. I also found my first bug. This particular football game had the option for a radar on the bottom of the screen, so you could use a bit of strategy in spotting potential long passes across the field that you couldn't see in the limited view point you had on screen. Well, I noticed with certain match-ups that despite you and your opposition playing in totally different colours, the radar sometimes didn't differentiate between the two and opted to choose the same colour for both teams. Basically, you couldn't tell which of the blips on the radar were your team mates because everyone looked the same.
If this had been the bug I'd found, I'd have NEVER reported it just so the game was released with it
I was excited! My first bug report! I was able to replicate the bug so included this little nugget of info, and explained why I thought it was happening. It was a great feeling where for once I felt like I was properly doing my job now, not just sitting on my ass playing foreign language games for the fun of it but actually contributing to the development process. The developers of the games I tested were required to have all titles tested before release, as a legality to say it's been quality controlled like most products are. It was a buzz for me to think this report of mine would go back to them and allow them to fix what was a very bad bug which could seriously hinder your game playing experience.
The other employees of the company were quite the different breed. It was like a living, breathing version of Twitch. Some of the staff were extremely pretentious, and thought they were the dogs bollocks because half of their personal gaming collections came from Japan. Some were quite quiet and kept themselves to themselves, and then there were the 'zany' few that you get in all work places who feel the need to let you know they're there, simply because that's their function. A fair few didn't have social lives, opting instead to allow the world of gaming to fulfil their everyday life's needs. There weren't as many oddballs there as you might expect, though there was one stand-out Japanese fanboy who was a lot of fun to be around. Funnily enough, it felt like the 3 other guys I'd started with were the most normal chaps there.
There were definitely some of these in the office
Oh, I have to tell you about the snack machines! There were coke machines and the usual crisps / chocolate bar machines, side by side. It blew my mind at the time, but the company had changed the prices on the machines so that everything was 10p each. Cans of coke and Fanta, bars of Dairy Milk, bags of Walkers crisps, all 10p each. I revelled in it, and this lasted a couple of weeks before I started wondering if this was why some of the staff were so absolutely overweight and hard of breathing with severe acne to boot. I tried to stop falling for the products but at 10p a pop, it was difficult.
I tested a Sim City style game, which was fun, but very difficult to enjoy with the Spanish language ruling its menus. My final game, console based was a great experience. It's also the reason I ended up losing my job there. I was in my 6th week with the company and was handed this title which has become a bit of a cult classic now. An open world title, it was the usual fare of playing a protagonist who's assigned missions, and can get involved with side-quests or just explore the game world around you with little restriction. I was LOVING this game. Annoyingly, I took over this assignment a couple of days after the other team of staff had started it, so the save game I was presented was nearly at a full completion status. I tried not to let this mar the enjoyment I was getting out of it, and just carried on exploring.
Then I made my big mistake. I went online to GameFAQs, which at the time was one of the largest message board communities in the world where gaming was concerned. I'd been a member for years, even becoming an actual boards moderator at one time before getting my account and email accounts hacked by an outsider, but that's a different story altogether. Anywho, I was so enthused about this game I was testing, I decided to go on the dedicated board for it on GameFAQs, let the members know I was currently involved with testing it, and field some questions. I wouldn't exactly be telling them anything new, the game had been getting previewed heavily and was hyped up to the max but still, I was passionate about it and wanted to share my liking for the game. I answered questions and the board members were happy.
My haven for years when it came to gaming discussions
This happened over a couple of days, and I thought nothing of it. The next day at work, I was called into my bosses office. He was there with one of the other teams boss and they sat me down. The conversation went like this:
"So Carl, we've had a situation arise. Quite a serious one, and we needed to discuss it with you."
"We have reason to believe that one of our testers for this particular game has been posting on certain message boards about their experiences whilst playing it, and we think that it's you. We cross-referenced the user-name used for posting across other pages on the internet and-"
"Yeah, that's me who's been posting."
*Surpised* "What, you admit it?"
"Well yeah, that's my account, I was talking about the game. I wasn't exactly saying anything you couldn't already read elsewhere online. I never read or signed anything in my contract which said I couldn't do this so I didn't think there'd be a problem."
"Right… well, this is where our issue lies. We have a non-disclosure agreement with the developer of this particular game, who brought your posts to our attention, and they're not happy. They're quite pissed to be frank. We have two options here regarding this. They have threatened to sue us for breach of contract, and they're well within their right to do so. You as our employee have breached that contract and it's reflected very poorly on us. They're willing to pull back on any action however, if we act upon what has happened and terminate your contract with us. You're still on probation with us, and this being a serious breach of your employment Ts and Cs, we have to let you go. Go grab your stuff, Walt will see you out."
I was shell-shocked. Now, at the age of 34, I look back and can see just how absolutely STUPID I was for posting anything online about the job I was doing. Of course I shouldn't have disclosed anything I was doing and experienced. I had no knowledge of working with NDAs however and I never had them explained at this company. I maintain to this day that I did not sign anything to do with non-disclosure agreements nor did my contract have anything to that effect in it. In the weeks following my termination, I twice requested some proof of any signature I had written out which supported any NDA agreement they said I had agreed to. They never replied or sent anything back to me. I'd have been content that I was fully in the wrong had I been presented with such signed documentation but it never came back to me.
This all happened at a time when I was also having personal problems with family and friends, and as I was now unemployed I decided to take a chance and moved down south to be with my girlfriend who stuck with me through a hell of a trying time for more reasons than just the job. Nearly 15 years later and we're married, have two kids, I have a job I am loving at this time, and I now look back at those 6 weeks as a hellish time in my life. I hated the job. I slowly began to resent games and was going home no longer wanting to play anything in my own time. The health repercussions were concerning, and I just really hated the lack of control I felt I had there.
I swear this is how I'd have looked if I'd stayed there
Being a games tester is, I'm sure, still the dream job for countless gamers out there, uneducated to the true role which lies behind the title. I'm glad I got the experience under my belt, as I'd have forever been wondering what it was like, wishing I'd had a chance to do it at some point. I did it. I hated it. I'd never do it again. I enjoy gaming in my own time, with my own decisions on what I'm going to play, for how long I want to play it, in the comfort of my own home. I never kept in touch with any of the guys who I worked there with, though I do know close friends who worked there after I left, for years and who absolutely love the job. Different horses I guess.
Oh and one last thing, that football bug I found? With the radar problem? It never got fixed even after I reported it. The game was released, I picked it up years later, and found the exact same problem was there. It dawned on me that the developers didn't care what state their game was in, as long as they were of the belief that they were finished and had their QC check ticked off on their legal list of things to do to get it released. It made me feel like all those guys sat there for those draining shifts are simply playing games because some developer has to get their titles 'checked', and any reports they do are a waste of time and for nothing. It doesn't get fixed. That's the gaming industry for you. They should be thankful they can at least patch their games these days, and my experience as a tester has led me to not be surprised at all that games are being released today as buggy messes. "How did they miss that in the testing stage??" I'm of the belief that testers are not missing these bugs at all, it's that some of the big developers just don't give a damn and can't be bothered going back to fix it until it becomes a minor PR situation for them. A shame.
Previous PostA Brief History of: Nintendo 64 (N64) Next PostGran Turismo vs Forza Motorsport
FIRST PHOTOS and HD TV Output Confirmed For Evercade
John BarnesJul 18, 2019
Would you take on the "Worst Ever" Super Mario Level?
PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini Announced! Pre-orders Live!
Interesting story. I remember thinking as a kid that being a games tester would be the perfect job too but unlike you I never got the opportunity.
Pretty naive of you at 20 years old to think you could post about it online, but hey, everyone makes mistakes.
One thing that stands out though – you don't remember where you saw the job, you don't remember applying and you don't even remember your interview, yet you're 100% sure that you didn't sign an NDA. Those two don't really line up in my view because it sounds like you could have signed 10 NDAs during your interview and not even remember it.
Anyway, I'm glad things worked out between you and your then-girlfriend.
Thanks for the interesting read!


text:
NBA postpones playoff games amid protests over Jacob Blake shooting
By Michael McLaughlin
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 26: Officials stand beside an empty court after the scheduled start of game five between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic in the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs at AdventHealth Arena at ESPN Wide World
The NBA announced that three playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed due to the protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee Bucks were the first to announce that they would not play against the Orlando Magic.
Games between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder and another between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trailblazers have also been called off.
The NBA said that all games would be rescheduled.
Blake is a Black man who was shot multiple times by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Blake's father has said his son was shot in the back and will be paralyzed from the waist down. Two people died in shootings overnight in Kenosha amid another night of protests and unrest in the city.


The primary goal is to connect local fans to each other as well as producers and retailers, allowing them to interact in a fun and relaxed setting.
Our reason for choosing the greater Reno-Sparks area is a simple one: We live here and so do numerous other people who share our interests in all things nerdy. This is the biggest little con(vention) in the biggest little city!


Parameterized skybox material for space environments.
StarSphere is a collection of assets for creating beautiful space skybox backdrops within Unreal Engine 4. It consists of 2 blueprints, 2 parameterized master materials and accompanying instance materials, 3 master textures and 4 sample decal textures. Also provided are materials and textures optimized for mobile applications as well as three additional bonus features: planet shader, physics based 6 DoF camera actor and space dust effect blueprint.
Planet shader uses 2 meshes and material instances to define planet surface and atmosphere. Planet surface uses 3 texture levels for surface, clouds and night lights. Atmosphere level fakes Rayleigh scattering effect and also provides eclipse effect.
6 DoF camera actor is physics based and provides parameter controls for maximum linear/angular velocity and linear/angular acceleration.
Space dust effect blueprint repositions emitter sphere in the path of player pawn and spawns space dust particles. Update rate, minimum actor velocity and emitter position offset can be controlled.
Last edited by loomman; 06-02-2017, 01:23 AM.
Since only "Add to Project" action is available for StarSphere on marketplace, DefaultInput.ini is not get copied into your project (since it may overwrite any existing input settings that you might have).
Alternatively, if you don't have any input bindings already setup, you can also download DefaultInput.ini file and copy it over into your project Config folder.
Important note regarding UE 4.15 release.
With UE 4.15 release Epic has changed default bloom settings.
RNs has a note "Bloom settings have been updated to provide a more physically correct result by default."
In the future update all maps in StarSphere will get their post process volumes updated with 4.14 settings in order to be consistent with documentation and screenshots.
This version adds a planet shader. Planet shader uses 2 meshes and material instances to define planet surface and atmosphere. Planet surface uses 3 texture levels for surface, clouds and night lights. Atmosphere level fakes Rayleigh scattering effect and also provides eclipse effect.
Note that it is not possible to "enter" atmosphere. Moreover, planet shader is not suitable for extreme close-up views. 4K textures are used which may require downscaling for mobile applications.
I bought this and its missing half the content !!!!!!
Issue was resolved with customer via email. Posting belated reply here as an info for anyone who might stumble into the same issue.
Planet shader feature requires UE4 version 4.15. If your project is saved in previous version (4.14), when "add to project" is used, Unreal launcher checks the version of the project and adds latest compatible asset version to it. To resolve the issue, project must be re-saved in 4.15 before adding StarSphere.
UE4 4.16 update: with this update Epic introduced some changes that greatly exacerbate eclipse effect. 4.16 compatibility will be added once I will figure the root cause of the issue and provide new settings to replicate 4.15 effect behavior. At the meantime please avoid converting your 4.15 projects with StarSphere in-place to the 4.16 version.
The issue is due to Power node behavior change.
4.16 compatibility will be up once StarSphere update will hit the marketplace.
Last edited by loomman; 05-25-2017, 02:47 AM.
This is a 4.16 compatibility release.
Thanks a lot for this pack, enjoying it so far.
One question though: How far away can a planet be rendered? I'm only using your Mars, a static StarSphere and a directional light. Today I flew away from the planet and at some point it disappeared. I can only see its eclipse effect, no surface. Increasing the diameter of the StarSphere doesn't help.
Hi. Thanks a lot for your purchase!
The computations in the pack materials have no distance limitations and I can't think of any engine limitations that can manifest themselves in the issue you are experiencing. I did a quick test using PlanetMars level. After ticking off "Enable World Bounds Checks" in "World Settings" and flying away with the 6DoFCamera, planet was still rendering fine at 50km distance.
Can you please email me (unreal@loomman.com) with the specifics of your setup so I could replicate the issue you are experiencing?
After debugging the issue with the customer we found that there is indeed a distance limitation. It is caused by the finite precision of the g-buffer. When distance between camera and the planet is more than ~400 million units, star sphere starts to clip into the planet. The actual size of the planet and starsphere is not relevant, only the distance to the camera.
Last edited by loomman; 03-29-2018, 02:12 AM.
Great work, and very clear instructions. Thank you.
One question though, There are some very large and bright stars in the starsphere. How do I reduce the size/brightness of these or turn them off?
Thank you, again. Really nice work.
Thank you for your purchase and the kind words.
Unfortunately, there are no controls to turn off the big stars layer or change its tiling that are exposed in material instance. I might add an off switch in the next update.
For the time being, you can alter the M_StarSphere material to switch off the layer. You need to remove one connection wire and set "Const B" to 0 on "Add" node. Please see the attached screens.
Last edited by loomman; 03-29-2018, 02:02 AM.
That did it. Thank you and for the quick reply.
I'm especially interested in the planet feature - is it made with mobile in mind (like the StarSphere _mobile materials)?


text:
Banner Witcoff
Practices + Industries
What does it mean to work at Banner Witcoff?
We are passionate about the work we do, driven to find the best IP solutions for our clients, and invested in growing both our careers and the firm itself.
Careers at Banner Witcoff
Technical Specialists
Our attorneys have passion for their field, deep technical knowledge, and a desire to protect and grow our clients' businesses. More than 50 of our attorneys have advanced technical degrees and PhDs, and our seasoned team includes over 20 former patent examiners — all ready to protect, enforce, and defend our clients' intellectual property and interests.
Our staff keeps Banner Witcoff running smoothly. Regardless of the department, our staff — ranging from design specialists to paralegals, and docketing professionals to law clerks — plays a crucial role in the wide range of services we offer and the many successes we've been able to deliver to our clients.
We are committed to growing the firm from within, and offer a number of programs and opportunities for law students to become best-in-class IP attorneys. A high percentage of our full-time attorneys participated in our summer program as law students. Additionally, our fellowship program aims to strengthen diversity in the field of IP law. The application is now live.
The majority of our technical specialists hold doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. They utilize their deep technical understanding of a wide range of complex technologies and industries to draft patent applications, prepare responses to office actions, and provide valuable assistance with litigation projects.
Patent agents at Banner Witcoff bring a wealth of professional experience with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They combine their engineering backgrounds with their vast familiarity with the USPTO to assist our clients with all patent-related matters.
Banner Witcoff Traits
At Banner Witcoff we believe that people with diverse experiences produce creative thinking, multiple perspectives on issues, and innovative problem-solving techniques in the practice of intellectual property law. That is why we are committed to creating and fostering a firm culture that values the differences among its attorneys, legal professionals, and support staff.
View Diversity + Inclusion
We offer our clients comprehensive services in all areas of intellectual property. From litigation and prosecution to counseling and opinion work, we have experience in it all. Our capabilities span industries and cover all aspects of IP — copyright, patents, trademarks, litigation, PTAB litigation, and so much more. We also have experience delivering our clients successful outcomes from a range of venues, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the Federal Court of Appeals, the USPTO, federal district courts, and the ITC.
View Practices + Industries
Banner Witcoff,
Patent Arcade Blog
myIP Law
Contact Banner Witcoff Share on LinkedIn View this page as a pdf Share on Twitter Email this page Print this page


text:
Dredge set to complete full house of majors at US Open
Bradley Dredge set to complete full house of majors at US Open
By David Williams
IN FULL SWING: Bradley Dredge has qualified for next month's US Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
BRADLEY Dredge will complete the full set of golf's four majors in just over a fortnight when he takes to the first tee at Erin Hills in Wisconsin.
After appearing at the Masters in 2007, the Open three years later and US PGA last July, Dredge has now qualified for the US Open.
It comes a decade after the Tredegar-born 43-year-old claimed he didn't "do qualifying for the US Open".
Writing on his own website, Dredge said: "In past years I have always tried to get a place in the US Open by playing well enough in Europe to rank inside the world's top 50, but playing the qualifier has at least done the job for this year."
Dredge made it to the 117th US Open, which runs from June 15-18, by coming through a qualifying event at Walton Heath.
The top 15 finishers secured a place at the second major of the year, with Dredge carding a two-round score of 11-under-par to claim joint fifth – England's Aaron Rai took first place.
"The Walton Heath club in Surrey is famous for staging the first ever Ryder Cup but now, in my personal memory, it is the venue where I played well enough to qualify for my first ever US Open," added Dredge.
"And in doing so not only was I one of two players who shot a club record 10-under-par 62 around the New Course but I also made sure I would complete the major grand slam having previously only played the Masters, the Open and the US PGA.
"And I did it in style because while my long game was in good shape as I made 10 birdies to shoot that 62 the score could have been even lower.
"I missed two very makeable birdie efforts early in the round and then on the final two par fours I failed to sink two more efforts from inside 15 feet.
"But even though I didn't shoot a 58 I was still top of the halfway leaderboard alongside a fellow Welshman.
"David Boote is an amateur and aged just 23 but plays off plus four and had some local knowledge as he is a Walton Heath member.
"My afternoon round did not get off to the best of starts as I found a bunker at the first hole and three-putted the second green on the way to carding three bogeys in the first four holes.
"But three birdies in five holes after the turn put me back in contention for one of the 15 US Open tickets on offer and, after signing for a 71, I found myself in a share of fifth place."
Tough start to life in the pro game for Sanges
Time is right for Sanges to leave golf's amateur ranks
Chepstow's Willis reigns out west to become Welsh champ
Patient Becky bags top accolade for first time
Bond building for the future as academy venture grows
Davidson fully focused on securing Tour card after turning pro
Golf ace Davies feels time is right to make switch to professional ranks
Walker Cup woe for Davidson and teammates in LA
Llanwern's Davidson gets Walker Cup call